The Most Rev. J. Peter Sartain, center, speaks with, from left, Cardinal Donald Wuerl, Cardinal Francis George and Cardinal Roger Mahony before an installation ceremony at Saint James Cathedral on Wednesday, December 1, 2010.

The Most Rev. J. Peter Sartain, center, speaks with, from left, Cardinal Donald Wuerl, Cardinal Francis George and Cardinal Roger Mahony before an installation ceremony at Saint James Cathedral on Wednesday,

Archbishop-elect J. Peter Sartain is welcomed to the Pacific Northwest by Kay Knott of the Upper Skagit Tribe during a Rite of Reception ceremony at St. James Cathedral on Tuesday in Seattle. Sartain is succeeding Archbishop Alex Brunett as leader of the Archdiocese of Seattle.

Archbishop-elect J. Peter Sartain is welcomed to the Pacific Northwest by Kay Knott of the Upper Skagit Tribe during a Rite of Reception ceremony at St. James Cathedral on Tuesday in Seattle. Sartain is

The Most Rev. J. Peter Sartain, charged by Vatican with reining in the independence of American nuns. He is facing dissent in Seattle archdiocese over opposition to same-sex marriage.

The Most Rev. J. Peter Sartain, charged by Vatican with reining in the independence of American nuns. He is facing dissent in Seattle archdiocese over opposition to same-sex marriage.

Photo: Joshua Trujillo, Seattlepi.com

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Seattle Archbishop J. Peter Sartain is seen as a future cardinal in the Catholic Church. But he must first do the Vaitcan-assigned job of making America's nuns toe the doctrinal line, and deal with resistance of Seattle-area Catholics to his opposition to marriage equality.

Seattle Archbishop J. Peter Sartain is seen as a future cardinal in the Catholic Church. But he must first do the Vaitcan-assigned job of making America's nuns toe the doctrinal line, and deal with resistance

The Vatican on Wednesday gave Seattle Archbishop J. Peter Sartain the job of imposing discipline and adherence to dogma on America's largest organization of Catholic nuns, making it toe the line to "the teachings and discipline of the Church."

A Vatican document praised the women religjous for promoting social justice, but said they have not spoken out on issues of abortion and human sexuality.

In an eight-page "Assessment" from the Congregration for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Vatican said that it found "serious doctrinal problems," instances of disagreement with the Church's bishops, and charged nuns with promoting "radical feminist themes incompatible with the Catholic faith."

The target of the Vatican's probe was the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR), which includes leaders of Catholic women's religious orders in the United States representing more than 80 percent of America's 57,000 nuns.

The Vatican has been angry for years at America's women religious. In a speech early this year, Cardinal Raymond Burke, head of the Vatican's highest court, decried "the public and obstinate betrayal of religious life by certain religious."

The "Assessment," its wording resembling a command for orthodoxy and obedience by a government espousing secular ideology, drew a bill of particulars against the LCWR.

"Issues of crucial importance in the life of the Church and society, such as the Church's Biblical view of family life and human sexuality, are not part of the LCWR agenda in a way that promotes Church teaching," said the Congregation, successor to what was once the Inquisition.

"Moreover, occasional public statements by the LCWR that disagree with or challenge positions taken by the Bishops, who are the Church's authentic teachers of faith and morals, are not compatible with its purpose . . . The Assessment reveals serious doctrinal problems which affect many in Consecrated life."

Joel Connelly has been a staff columnist for more than 30 years. He comments regularly on politics and public policy.

Sartain has been granted authority over the nuns in such areas as reviewing all plans and programs, creating new programs, and "offering guidance" on the application of Church doctrine -- as well as reviewing LCWR's affiliations.

He is given "up to five years, as deemed necessary" to do the job, working "collaboratively" with an advisory panel of clergy and nuns, and is told "to report on the progress of this work to the Holy See."

Sartain reacted to his new task with conciliatory language. He described the ministry of women religious, "especially here in the United States," as "deeply respected and paramount to the mission of the Church."

"Just as the LCWR can be a vital resource in many ways for its members, I hope to be of service to them and to the Holy See as we face areas of concern to all," Sartain added.

But several leading American nuns reacted with expressions of hurt.

"I'm stunned . . .We haven't violated any teaching, we have just been raising questions and interpreting politics," Sr. Simone Campbell, head of Network, a Catholic social justice lobby, told The New York Times.

Benedictine Sr. Joan Chittister, former president of the LCWR, told the National Catholic Reporter:

"When you set out to reform a people, a group, who have done nothing wrong, you have to have an intention, a motivation that is not only morally biased, but actually immoral.

"Because you are attempting to control people for one thing and one thing only -- and that is for thinking, for being willing to discuss the issues of the age . . . If we stop thinking, if we stop demanding the divine right to think, and to see that as a Catholic gift, then we are betraying the church no matter what the powers of the Church see as an inconvenient truth in their own times."

Archbishop Sartain is already facing dissent in his own diocese. Several large Catholic parishes have refused to participate in his promotion of a referendum signature drive to roll back Washington's new same-sex marriage law. And pastors have warned that Ref. 74 will bring division and hurt.

Cardinal William Levada, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, used conciliatory language in releasing the "Assessment," saying it is "aimed at fostering patient and collaborative renewal."

But there was nothing patient or accommodating in Cardinal Burke's recent speech.

"Who ever could have imagined that religious congregations of pontifical right would openly organize to resist and attempt to frustrate an apostolic visitation, that is, a visit to their congregations carried out under the authority of the Vicar of Christ on Earth, to whom all religious are bound by the strongest bonds of loyalty and obedience."

When named Archbishop of Seattle late in 2010, at 58 the youngest archbishop in the United States, Sartain was widely talked about as a future cardinal either at the Vatican or in a bigger diocese.

He now faces a test of politics and ambitions, on the home front with dissent on Referendum 74, and nationally with American nuns who have resisted the Vatican's fabled "three D's"-- the demand for discipline, dogma and docility.

Sartain will share his duties with Bishop Leonard Blair of Toledo and Bishop Thomas Paprocki of Springfield, Ill.

Columnist Joel Connelly has written about politics for the P-I since 1973.